In recent months I’ve seen plenty of articles and comments, on regular and social media, to the effect that either the government, or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), or both, must do more to educate businesses about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and to help them comply with its requirements.

My response to this is blunt: when setting up and when running a business, it is for the owner/directors/board to exercise appropriate diligence to understand and comply with the laws relating to the business. Furthermore, the costs of this diligence and compliance have to be factored into any new or ongoing business plan. Even more bluntly – if you can’t afford to find out what the applicable law is, and you can’t afford to comply, then you haven’t got a viable business.

(Less bluntly, there is of course a wealth of information, mostly from the ICO, about what GDPR means and how to comply. Ultimately, however, data protection law is principles-based and risk-based and no one but those responsible for running it can reasonably say what compliance means in the context of that particular business).

The views in this post (and indeed all posts on this blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.